19. Andreas You lean against a tenement in the Suburra district. A thick sky darkens above. You hold bread in your hands. Ultimately, this is what everything comes down to, isn’t it? Everything must consume to live. You grip a Read More

18. Joah A bite of pain tore my attention from my straining, gorged stomach. I jerked back my fingers as the wolfling nipped them with her needle-like puppy teeth. It wasn’t the pup’s fault, she didn’t know how to eat Read More

17. Andreas You stagger through Rome, the streets lurching beneath your feet. You carry a half-empty wineskin which didn’t belong to you this morning. Legally it still doesn’t belong to you, but that’s only temporary. As soon as you have Read More

16. Marcus Verus The house sat dark when Marcus woke, his heart hammering in his chest. No stinking barbarians crashed through his doors, axes sticky with gore. None of his family screamed as they were cut open. It had been Read More

15. Joah I had been a young man, once. I had known passion and folly in my youth. One such folly was named Ehud. We’d grown up in the same small village in Judea, but we hadn’t been friends. I Read More

14. Andreas You pace the broken Suburra streets as the day slouches towards its end, watching as men clear room and place feasting tables at regular intervals. They look bored, and none have shown any violent inclinations. Slaves load the Read More

13. Joah It was a bizarre list the wizard’s translator gave me, and I wondered how they’d come across half these items in the barbarian lands. Many were vile. I felt tainted just writing them down. I would burn this Read More

12. Andreas You spend the day following Benayah, which is sorta like watching over the poor district. Close enough to count, you figure. You had started the afternoon hanging around outside Cornelius’s tenement, unsure what exactly to do. Guard duty Read More

11. Marcus Verus “That’s three,” Marcus said to Titus after Andreas left. “We need more.” Marcus pushed himself to his feet, gathering his cane in one hand and Sextus’s letter in the other. Marcus took care not to knock the Read More

10. Andreas You wait. You fidget. You glance left, then glance right. You hate waiting. You are in Marcus Verus’s manor, a small palace on the upper slopes of the Caelian Hill, though on the wrong side to overlook the Read More

9. Joah “I need more food for the animals,” I told Sextus that morning. I’d come to visit him at the office in his home. The short uphill trudge from the Ludus was particularly unpleasant today. The smell of the Read More

8. Andreas You don’t really wake up, because you were never really asleep. You’d staggered into your father’s house on Quirinal Hill after dawn, then spent unknown hours drifting in and out of consciousness. Tossing in your bed. Sweating. The Read More

7. Joah It didn’t take me long to regret having consigned the old barbarian to the ranks of the damned. As I made my final rounds among the animals to be killed today, I saw the old savage’s likeness in Read More

6. Marcus Verus Marcus lowered himself into the steaming water with a grimace. His ankle throbbed at the heat. After a minute it would start to loosen, and soon he’d be able to roll it without too much pain. He Read More

5. Andreas Your head grew light on the return march, your insides hollow. You stumbled over your own feet. Unable to wait, you cut open your sixty-pound sack of grain, scooped a handful into your mouth, and chewed as best Read More

4. Joah After Titus had finally left with his emptied wagons, I gathered up the remains of my dignity and went searching for Zia. I couldn’t meet anyone’s eyes. The gladiators had heard of my humiliation from the guards, and Read More

3. Marcus Verus Senator Marcus Verus sat frozen, drowning in the Senate Hall. “I return to my Emperor the First Blade of the Guard, to continue its divine service.” The words came murky to his ears, distorted and unreal. He Read More

2. Andreas Sometimes, you get second chances. If you’re really lucky sometimes you even get third chances. But the thing about fourth chances is–nobody ever, ever gets one of those. Not one in a million. Early this morning Sextus gave Read More

1. Joah I needed a monster. More than food, more than family, I needed a monster this week or I was dead. Worse than just dead, in fact. I’d die screaming, for the enjoyment of my betters. Somewhere in Rome, Read More